covey22's Blog

Three from Boston

2011-05-09T03:09:40Z

Some frames from a recent trip to Boston:

Public Service Announcement

Temptation Below

Absolutely Ribbetting Band

The Breakers - Newport RI

2011-04-12T00:34:52Z

Some scenes from my trip to The Breakers mansion in Newport RI - the historic summer home of the Vanderbilts.

Taking Portraits at Night

2011-01-19T23:06:57Z

One of the biggest challenges photographers face is night portraiture. In essence you're trying to solve two problems; one is getting a portrait correctly, and the other is to properly illuminate both your subject and the background. Typically, a modern camera's logic will invoke the use of flash when light levels drop precipitously. That's good because your subject will be visible.

But take a second look at the image above. Notice that while your subject is well illuminated, the background is blown to black. This is the Deer-In-Headlights look, where the flash has overpowered the background or available light. If you stay still long enough in a dark area, your vision will adjust and you can see a lot of detail even if the only light available is very low. The problem is that in order to capture that on a camera without a flash, you have to stay still for a long time and so do your subjects. Adding a flash without calculating for that background light just blasts any detail beyond the subject into pixel oblivion.

Recent camera automation solved this problem by using a special "Night Portrait" mode (depending on camera model, the title may vary - it's also popularly known as Night Scene). How does it work? It automates a technique that has been well known to manual control photographers - if you slow down the shutter speed of the camera while firing the flash, you can get both the subject properly illuminated AND bring the background details (excuse the pun) to light.

As the example above reveals, Hogwarts Castle at Harry Potter's Wizarding World was in the background the whole time.

Photographers with manual control cameras can recreate Night Portrait mode as well. All it takes is the ability to drop the "synch speed" or the shutter speed at which the camera will fire while activating the flash. In this case, It was 1.3 seconds. Note that the duration of the flash firing is not meaningful - it's how long the shutter stays open after the flash fires that allows us to illuminate both foreground (subject) and background.

Caveats:

Your subjects must stay still. This is true if your are using Night Portrait or the manual method. Any movement is likely to end up being captured as a blur. In the 2nd photo above, you can see a bit of "ghosting" on the edges of my subjects because 1.3 seconds is an eternity in flash photography, and there is plenty of opportunity for natural movement to be captured even though your subjects may feel they are standing still. My shaky hands didn't help either. The blurring effect was off-set by my use of an Image-Stabilizing lens, so this technology can help if it's available to you.

You may need to reduce the amount of flash being fired. This may not be available to cameras only equipped with Night Portrait mode, but for cameras with manual controls, you may need to reduce your flash power from what the camera thinks is the right amount. In this case, I had to reduce flash power by two full stops (-2.0 EV) because the flash was still blowing out the background.

As always, happy clicking!

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Photography for the Upcoming Holidays

2010-11-25T00:22:03Z

As we gather to celebrate over the coming weeks, here's a few tips to help capture those memorable times:
]]> Focusing: your camera supports the half-press technique or it gives feedback on the screen as to when it's focused. Either way, pay attention to it - there's nothing worse than the perfectly composed or timed photo that's fuzzily out of focus!

Composition: get closer, most holiday snaps are too far away from the subject; wide-angle shots are key - and the subject has to be prominent in the frame. The famous photojournalist Frank Capa said it best - "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough."

Lighting: open up the shades, turn up the lights. Sacrifice a little bit of the ambiance; your camera operates best with as much illumination as possible, both for focusing and image quality.

Video: it's available now in many digital still cameras - but the rules are the same as still photography - strong light and a steady hand and avoid zoom transitions - the latter is a technique used in many award-winning films.

Audio: the other half to a successful movie - if your camera supports it, connect an external microphone to get the best sound possible. Otherwise, get closer.

Background: Don't forget to get some good frames of the main course (before it's consumed) and the decorations. Ditto for when the Tree and presents come out.

Timing: catch the candid moments, but avoid taking shots of people eating - follow the rule of photographing royalty - nothing in or near their mouths.

Posing: group shots can be deliberate but should be dynamic. If you must have posed formal shots, do so before anyone has had anything to eat or drink so as to keep appearances as neat as possible.

Flash: in some cases you must use it. That's okay. If you have an external flash for your camera, look for places to bounce your flash off of - white walls and ceilings are best so as to simulate natural lighting color. On cameras with built-in flash, try cutting up an old ping-pong ball and stick on top of the flash - presto - instant diffuser for softer lighting. For video, you may need an auxiliary white light to get good footage.

Keep Shooting: you've got extra cards and batteries right? (if not, this is a BIG HINT) Keep shooting so as to get the maximum number of opportunities.

Pay now or pay later: while you're digesting the excellent meal, take the time to sort through your frames and clips using the preview function and delete the non-keepers. Either way, be prepared to get some serious post-processing time on the computer to enhance the really important shots and splice the vidclips into a cohesive narrative. But every minute you spend QA'ing the "take" in the field translates to less time spent behind the keyboard sorting and culling.

Above all, have fun! Happy and Safe Clicking!

Back Eddy Bluegrass @ Garden City

2009-08-03T01:52:32Z

First time I've ever attended a Bluegrass concert - it was great! Back Eddy Bluegrass is a local band out of New Bedford - I think they might be planning to use some of my shots in the revision of their website. Fairly tough shooting conditions - the Gazebo's pillars get in the way of optimal line-of-sight to the performers and they're under shade during a cloudy day - as a result, I was getting a larger than desirable DOF because I had to use a Speedlight. Fortunately, the background was well off in the distance which still gave me reasonable bokeh.

B&W Orchids I

2009-07-26T20:25:12Z

One from a recent walk-about to Roger Williams Botanical Gardens in Providence:

Change-Up: Air Show in B&W

2009-07-09T02:07:34Z

Another dreary Press Preview Day for the RI Air National Guard Air Show. Rather than live with low-contrast color photos, I decided to challenge myself and convert the best to B&W.

I keep re-learning this lesson - even with a D2 and 8 fps, which is the fastest camera I've ever owned to date, anticipation timing is still required. The CAM2000 AF system on the D2 is also pretty infallible, but if you're in the wrong mode for the subject at hand (fast speed, somewhat unpredictable flight path) then all that technology means nothing. It still boils down to the photographer knowing the equipment *and* thinking ahead to maximize the chances for a good frame.

Three from Newport

2009-06-08T01:07:46Z

As you can tell, I'm on a bit of a black & white kick. Here's three from a walk through Newport RI.

Changing the Line-up a Bit

2009-06-07T14:53:47Z

As one would expect, most of my photos are from Nikon film and digital cameras, but here's one from a Canon Powershot I took on vacation one time courtesy of a friend. At the local zoo, all the animals of one display had just received their mid-afternoon treat. I was struck by the symmetry of how they all sat and ate - I call this one "Lunchbreak."

Signs of the Times

2009-06-01T22:51:08Z

Another of my "found shots" - oddly enough, it was an advertisement for neon signs, but the display was facing the back of a tiny, narrow parking lot in on a side-street in Newport. No way he was getting much in terms of drive-by business...

The Cobbler's Bench

2009-05-14T23:59:57Z

A bit more of my still life shots - working my way through the take...

Barrels

2009-05-12T00:53:51Z

Reproduction barrels of chemicals used in the past, with a little bit of post-process with some of my favorite effects plug-ins to give a slightly surreal feel.

Happy Mothers Day 2009

2009-05-10T20:55:24Z

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, grandmothers and other motherly figures in our lives...

I See Faces (in Post Process)

2009-04-13T01:29:02Z

The constant challenge in post-process, for me anyway, is to do just enough. When faced with a large job, even batch file support makes it very tedious to wade through dozens, never mind hundreds of frames. And yet, I can always count on the photographic muses to whisper in my ear and say, "No, don't delete that one just yet. Let's just see what we can do with it." And inevitably, one image is saved for the special extra mile of creative post-work.

Jump! (Into the Warm Weather)

2009-04-09T22:19:18Z

It's finally getting warm. And here is the result of my first studio session, courtesy of the fully equipped Blue Line Studio in Lincoln RI. The proprietor, Ray, is an outstanding photographer in his own right and was graciously very helpful that evening to yours truly. Thanks Ray!